Kelly's Heart Valve Journal

My Story

My Background.

When I was 19 years old I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease, I underwent chemotherapy and radiation therapy for a year, was in remission when all was completed and was considered cured after 10 years. (This comes into play later)

I was diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation in November of 2010. I presented with a heart rate of 150 beats per minute, I have actually heard of them being much faster. I was admitted into the hospital, under went some tests, one of which was a echocardiogram, they all looked good. I met my WONDERFUL cardiologist Dr. Byun, he pushed a drug through my IV and got me back into normal sinus rhythm, YEA! I am still in normal sinus rhythm to this day, THANK YOU Dr. Byun.

Over Memorial Day weekend I had to go to the hospital again, I was diagnosed with anemia. Coumidin, a blood thinner, was making me bleed internally. After 4 blood transfusions and 2 pints of plasma my blood levels looked good, but I had to be taken off the blood thinner. When you have Atrial Fibrillation you have to watch out for blood clots, that is why you have to take blood thinner. Being taken off the blood thinner was ok, I was able to go on an aspirin regiment and that worked well.

All of my symptoms were still going strong:

-Shortness of breath, especially with exertion or when you lie down

-Fatigue, especially during times of increased activity

-Cough, especially at night or when lying down

-Swollen feet or ankles

-Chest pain (angina) or tightness

-Dizziness

I made the decision to undergo an Ablation, this would direct energy through the catheter to small areas of the heart muscle that causes the abnormal heart rhythm. This energy "disconnects" the pathway of the abnormal rhythm, it cauterizes the part of your heart muscle that is telling your heart to beat fast. I thought this would knock out a few symptoms and then we could start to work on the rest one-by-one.

With my Ablation scheduled for 9/13/11, I was looking forward to getting that knocked out, but it was not be. On Sunday of Labor Day weekend my blood pressure shot up, never having had high blood pressure, I knew I needed to get to the emergency room, they admitted me to the cardiac unit where they ran another echocardiogram and said things looked ok, I hadn't had a heart attack and sent me home with blood pressure medicine and instructions to call my doctor on Tuesday, 9/6/11.

I am going to start my journal from this point on.

Talk to you soon!!